Parts Not Taken

Interior of a room with dark paneled walls featuring a hanging textile art piece depicting a half-face and skull design. Below is a wooden table with a small vase of white flowers, surrounded by wooden chairs. Brick walls and a window are visible.

The Crown, Hastings - March 2025

Solo exhibition

Banner with 2 stars hangs on old brick wall

I’ve been working with textiles, stemming from my complicated relationship with clothing and my body, and an interest in costume. I’ve been cutting up my own clothes and repurposing fabric, inspired by signal flags — simple shapes and bold colours that convey urgent messages. While we are encouraged to talk about mental health, it can be difficult to find the right words. I’m looking for new ways to say things.

This exhibition continues my exploration of personal experiences of mental illness, specifically Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and my hospitalisation at ‘Bedlam’.

Interior of The Crown with brick walls and eclectic wall art. Howie sits at a wooden table working

Dedicated to Lyra

  • Howie Whale Artwork. A textile wall hanging with orange fabric, featuring abstract black and white figures on black plinths, mounted on a white wall with a white and black nautical rope. Raving and Melancholy madness. Rorschach. Distress Flag.
  • Howie Whale Artwork. Textile art piece depicting a black long-sleeved top silhouette on aged fabric background, hanging on a wall with pins and a hanging cord. Restraint jacket. BDD. Mental Illness art.
  • Howie Whale Artwork. A fabric wall hanging with a silhouette of two people in red and blue, both holding swords, on aged fabric. The wall hanging has red and blue coiled ropes. Betrayal. Veins. Blood. Mental illness art.
  • Howie Whale Artwork. A textile wall hanging with applique artwork depicting a human face merged with a skull, on a brown flag background. Death. Memento mori. Life is fleeting. BDD. Mental health illness Art
  • Howie Whale Artwork. Textile wall hanging featuring an embroidered outline of a gambeson jacket with three arrows piercing through it, on a cream fabric, bordered by a black fabric with frayed edges. Arrows. Mental health illness art.
  • Howie Whale Artwork. Textile wall hanging with a cow print pattern in red and white, shaped like a jacket, on a black background. Gambeson, rorschach, Mental health illness art

Photography by Jorge Anthony Stride